Herbicide exposure haunts Vietnam vets
By LYNN BYCZYNSKI
Staff Reporter
Bill Moore left Vietnam more than 10 years ago. He came home to Great Bend stiff and missed, missing an awful job.
louisy, Moore and thousands of other Vietnam veterans like him find themselves caught in another war.
For Moore, this struggle began with a stiffness in his joints and worries about his children's health.
These ever-increasing and unexplained health problems, ranging from skin rashes to cancer, have caused Moore and the Vietnam veterans to accuse—and the Veterans. Administration to defend—the common factor in the veterans' pasts: Aerent Orange.
Agent Orange was the Pentagon's code name for a herbicide sprayed over five million acres of South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971. Orange, one of seven color-coded defoliants used by the U.S. military to destroy Viet Cong jung cover, was a 50-60 mixture of the chemicals 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T.
were traces of TCDD, a type of dioxin. Dioxin may be one of the deadliest chemicals ever developed.
Contaminating the already hazardous herbicide
THE ENVIRONMENTAL Protection Agency has temporarily hanned 2,4,5-T widespread use in U.S. agriculture and forestry. The fate of 2,4,5-T, blaimed for a large number of miscarriages and birth defects among women exposed to it in Oregon, will be decided by the EPA this year.
Despite the controversy that surrounds 2.4.5-T, the weight of scientific evidence leans heavily against it.
So far, veterans have only the support of their numbers. But those numbers are growing rapidly.
At the Topeka Veterans Administration hospital, 10 veterans have been examined for suspected herbicide-related problems this year. At the Kansas City VA hospital, the number is 32.
PROBLEMS THAT Vietnam veterans frequently complain of are sexual impotence, digestive problems, skin rashes, nervous disorders, sensitivity to light—and cancer.
Researchers know that TCDD can be absorbed through the skin, but are not sure if it can be ingested.
"We've found nothing wrong with them," Carroll Doll, chief medical administrator of the Kansas City VA Hospital, said last week. "But five years from now, we know what we need, so we're conducting extensive examinations now."
Nationally, several thousand veterans have been examined, and about 1,000 of them have filed claims
And, since the American Legion included information about Agent Orange in its April newsletter, American Legion representatives in Kansas report fielding questions daily from concerned veterans.
MOORE, THE American Legion representative for Kansas' main VA office in Wichita, has been urging all veterans with symptoms to file for disability payments.
It is a tactic that many veterans' organizations are urging their members to take. KU Campus Veterans president Mike Hake sent that advice last month to the University of Kansas era who are attending the University of Kansas.
"OUR POSITION is that if they had to go over and get exposed to this, they should be compensated for it."
Campus Veterans also is warning its members that, because Agent Orange was sprayed around all U.S. base camps, most of the 3.5 million Americans who served in Vietnam may have been exposed.
payments will be retroactive to the time of their claim," Hand said.
That warming is what led Moore to wonder if the stiffness in his joints was really caused by the pressure under the base of the foot.
It also has caused fears that his children may be plagued with ill health because of a war he thought to have been imagined.
His youngest child was born with a heart murmur and anemia. His oldest boy suffers from severe chest pain.
Staff photo by BARB KINNEY
"I really makes me angry," Moore said. "Not only did I have to go over there and get shot up, but I had to be able to make it happen."
MOORE, 31, said tracing the medical histories of both his and his wife's families had turned up one more detail. "They were trying to find a cure."
This charge, that Agent Orange may cause birth defects, is the most serious leveled against Agent Orange.
A medical survey of Vietnam veterans conducted by the American Health Foundation, a private research agency in New York, listed 72 birth defects in the children of the first 363 veterans surveyed.
Those results are not yet conclusive because the survey was conducted so that veterans with problems tended to respond more often than others, Jeanne Stellman, director of the survey, said.
"This makes our survey quite different from one in which people are randomly selected from the general population."
HOWEVER, THE claim that exposure to Agent Orange more than a decade ago can be causing birth defects.
Terry Mulcahy, Overland Park school, found this hilly country road to be the perfect place to jog a few miles yesterday afternoon.
Richard Lebinson, the physician heading the VA's own study of the problem, said there was no evidence that TCDD could cause birth defects when the father had been exposed to the herbicide.
"Any birth defects in their progeny must be attributed to other causes." . "J. leibniz said,
The VA's denial of a connection between Agent Orange and birth defects is baseless on reams of records.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
See AGENT ORANGE back page
KANSAN
Wednesday, April 18, 1979
Vol.89.No.133
Lawrence, Kansas
KU plays Royals today in exhibition
See story page seven
Road runner
City to study radioactive matter
By TAMMI HARBERT
Staff Reporter
The Lawrence City Commission last night decided that the use of radioactive material in research activities that used for research activities at the University of Kansas, needs further inthe proposals came in the form of two amendments to city codes, along with a
It referred the matter to the city staff for further study.
The action was prompted by the Lawrence Residents for a Radioactive-free Kansas, which presented the community with radioactive materials in Lawrence.
Michael Almon, spokesman for the group, said the main purpose of the group's proposal was to get city government to take preventive measures.
But Russell Mesler, director of the KU nuclear reactor, said yesterday afternoon that such an amendment would have a devastating effect.
"IF THEY have such a thing, we'd be out of business," he said.
According to Ben Prisen, KU radiation safety officer, about 100 KU research projects would have to be terminated under such a ban.
Commissioner Donald Binns said it would be difficult to enforce*couch a ban.
"For us to ban it there would be silly," he said. "If we are going to ban it, we should ban it nationally."
"I agree with you about the dangers, but if there's one thing that needed, it is research," he said.
Binns also expressed concern for University projects.
Almon said the group intended the proposals to apply to the city of Lawrence, and hadn't considered how they might affect the University.
"This is one area of cloudiness that we are concerned with," he said.
Mayor Burkley Clark said the commission needed to get more information concerning the city's jurisdiction over the University and current traffic of radioactive materials in the city before action could be taken.
Commissioner Marci Francisco suggested that the commission look into state laws or radioactive waste handling.
letter explaining the reasons for the organization's concern.
The letter stated, "Kansas has about 100 shipments per day of radioactive materials according to the State Radiological Officer, most of which are radiologic pharmaceuticals. Some of these shipments travel on highways 70, 59 and 10, and therefore come through Lawrence." The authors have Lawrence as their destination."
THE LETTER cited studies of John Goffman, a former Atomic Energy Commission scientist. Gelfmann contends that the number of cancer exposures," and that 19,000 extra cancer deaths and between $8,000 and $80,000 genetics diseases each year are attributable to the cancer.
Radioactive wastes cross area
BY RON BAIN and BRUCE THOMAS Staff Reporters
By RON BAIN
Radioactive material passes through Douglas County an average of six to eight times a day, Leon Mannell, state police spokesman, said in an emergency preparedness, and recently.
Part of that radioactive material is produced at the University of Kansas. However, the radioactive material produced at KU, like most of that transported through the county, contains small amounts of low-level radiation, Mannel said.
Most of the radioactive wastes produced at KU are residues from biological tracers, radioactive chemicals that can be detected in the environment. Friesen, KU radiation safety officer, said.
"On a scale of one to 10, the dangers of radioactive material would be very low."
Tracers are used in radiation biophysics experiments and other experiments on the KU campus, Friesen said, as well as for biomedical research. The University of Kansas Medical Center.
"MOST OF this stuff is radioactive pharmaceuticals that are intended for human use," Mannel said. "There are a lot more life-threatening things that pass through Douglas County than radioactive material, like life hazardous chemicals."
KU's radioactive wastes are transported to a disposal site about four miles south of De Soto to be buried, Jack Price, an employee of KU's Radiation Safety service, said.
Wastes buried there long ago as 1965 have remained safely within the borders of the disposal site, according to a 1978 thesis by a graduate student. The land is owned by KI.
THE STUDY, conducted by Emory Lairmon, who received a master's degree in radiation biophysics from KU last semester, focused on two radioactive ions, hydrogen-3 or tritium, and carbon-14. He wastes most commonly buried at the site.
Price said the wastes posed no danger to employees who work at the site or to people who live nearby.
A half-life is the amount of time it takes for a radioactive substance to decay to half its original amount. A half-life is finished, a radioactive substance will emit no significant amounts of radiation.
"Much of the material buried there has a short half-life, and is gone in a matter of days or weeks," Price said.
Radioactive isotopes such as the biological tracers used by KU are shipped to the nuclear medicine department at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, 325 Maine
St. Because of the short half-lives of the isotopes, they must be flown to Kansas City International Airport and then brought to Lawrence by car.
LAWRENCE MEMORIAL received three shipments of the isotopes each week from a commercial delivery company. Bankers Dispatch, Mannell said the isotopes were transported in boxes about 18 inches square.
One of the main types of radioactive material passing through the county, as in this case, is preparedness coordinator, is yellowake, a low-grade ornium ore. It is shipped to the local nuclear power plant.
SHIPMENTS OF yellowcake in semi-trailer trucks pass through the county three to four times a week, Brann said.
Braun said people coming in contact with the yellowwake would experience no long-term harm as long as they were properly decontaminated.
Bram said yellowcake was a component of nuclear fuel. It is shipped by semi-trailer truck from Shirley Basin, Wyo., where the ore is mined.
Some Douglas County firemen have been trained to monitor radioactive material. Currently, eight policemen are going through similar training sessions. Brann said state highway patrol carry in their cars devices that detect radiation.
Senate budget hearings go on without quorum
Although a quorum was not present at last night's Student Senate hearing earpings, one called for the one and the Senate proceeded to allocate funds to 31 more organizations.
Last night's was the first meeting of this spring's budget hearings in which a quorum was not called. Only 58 senators were there, three fewer than the required quorum of 61.
The senators present passed a bill that allocated an additional $1,831.50 to the
The organizations that received Senate funds were:
University Concert Series and $966.30 to the Chamber Music Series.
Alpha RhoGamma, $1,090; American Institute of Astronautics & Aeronautics;
$395; Architecture Student Council, $1,010; Astronomy Associates of Lawrence, $675.
Association of Students Interested in
Academic Assistants, 1501. KU German Club, $66.
KU English Club, $29.
Students Association, $55; Counseling
Student Organization, $135; Engineering
University Association for the Advancement of Women Engineers, $83; Student American Pharmaceutical Association, $102; Student Association for the Education Department, $200; Student Bar Association, $59; Undergraduate Philosophy Club, $300.
KU Bands, $10,989; Forensics, $3,663;
Chamber Music Series, $4,029.30;
University Concert Series, $29,303.50;
University Theatre, $29,304; Operation
Music Hall, Tau Sigma Dance Ensemble
$1,433.10
Arab Student Association, $65; African Students Association, $85; Chinese Student Association, $45; KU India Club, $50; Iranian Student Association, $55; Latin Student Association, $75; Mackenzie Student Association, $31; Thai Student Association, $46; International Club, $3.395.
Wichita star signs letter of intent
By JOHN P. THARP
Associate Sports Editor
Associate Sports Editor
Ted Owens' golden Eastern egg finally has made it to his basket.
Ricky Ross, All-America preguard, signed a national letter of intent last night to play collegiate basketball with the University of Kansas and coach Owen Owens.
Ross, the leading high school scorer in Kansas last season, was one of the nation's most highly sought after players. The actual signing last night in his Wichita home ended weeks of speculation and agony for the KU coaching staff and fans.
Owens was en route to Wichita last night from Quincy, Ill., where he earlier signed Keith Douglas, another highly recruited prep player. Owens will be at a press conference this morning with Ross, where the coup will be officially announced.
Ross, who had narrowed his list of possible schools to KU and the University of Arkansas, lengthened that list last weekend when he included Wichita State University and the University of North Carolina. He asked his staff to take some time with KU but the official signature couldn't be snared until about 10 last night, when assistant coaches Lafayette Norwood and UCLA would finish their hardest fought recruiting battle.
Ross had said that he liked the tradition and atmosphere at KU, but that he couldn't see a way to do it.
Ross last year averaged 32 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and four steals a game while leading his Wichita South team to a state championship.
The signings of two more recruits brought the KU crop to four. Last week 6-8 Kelly Knight of Salina South and 6-4 Art House college, signed letters of intent with KU.
The signing of Ross was a victory for KU recruiters, who had failed to sign such prest stars as Saw Barnie, Ralph Sampson and LaSalle Thomson.
Ross had received letters from more than 250 students interested in his talent. Two other Big Eight conference schools, the Ohio State University and Iowa State University, also recruited him.
Ross, who said he preferred to be called Ricky rather than Rick, is an outstanding outside shooter, something much needed for a KU basketball team that was plunged into an orange-haze zone defenses. He probably will play opposite point guard Darnell Valentine.
Ross' high school coach, Bill Himebaugh, had said earlier that his star had handled the recruiting pressure better than 99 percent of most players.
"Whoever gets him is going to get a franchise with him," Himehaugh said.
Ricky Ross